From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   September 18th - St. Joseph of Cupertino   
      
   1603-1663   
      
   St. Augustine says: "Do you wish to become great, then begin by being   
   small."   
   God often deals in that way with His saints. He often permits the most   
   glorious   
   saints to begin in the deepest lowliness. St. Joseph of Cupertino in the old   
   kingdom of Naples, is an example in point. His father was a humble   
   carpenter,   
   who has contracted very heavy debts and was in very straitened circumstances   
   at   
   the time Joseph was born. His mother was very strict with him. He used to   
   say in   
   later life that he made his novitiate while still a child. Nevertheless   
   Joseph   
   performed additional penances and appeared to have been given a body merely   
   for   
   the purpose of mortifying it. Even as a child he lived in close union with   
   God,   
   so that he dwelt in heaven rather than on earth.   
      
   In time he was sent to learn a trade, but it was soon noticed that this was   
   not   
   his vocation. He was eventually invested with the Franciscan habit among the   
   Capuchins, but was soon dismissed because of his awkwardness. The result was   
   that his own relatives turned him out as a useless creature and a disgrace   
   to   
   his family. Finally, the Conventuals took pity on the young man who so   
   humbly   
   pleaded for admission and employed him to take care of the convent mule. In   
   this   
   lowly service his virtues, especially his humility, obedience, and piety,   
   shone   
   forth with such brilliance that his superiors received him among the   
   clerics,   
   and within three years he was ordained a priest.   
      
   Joseph's natural knowledge was of small account, for his efforts to learn by   
   study were never successful. But it was soon perceived that he possessed   
   much   
   infused knowledge, so that even great theologians marveled at it. His life   
   was   
   one of uninterrupted union with God. Everything in nature lifted him up to   
   heaven and to the supernatural. Not only his spirit but also his body was so   
   frequently raised above the earth in holy rapture and remained in that   
   position   
   for so long a time, that his biographer declares he spent more than half his   
   religious life above the earth. Sometime he flew to the objects of his   
   devotion   
   in swiftest flight.   
      
   On an elevation near the convent three crosses had been erected. Repeatedly   
   when   
   he looked at them, he would rise in the air with a cry and fly to the cross   
   in   
   the center, embracing it and remaining in that position until the end of the   
   ecstasy. On another occasion, when he visited the Basilica of St. Francis,   
   he   
   saw a painting of the Mother of God high up in the vault of the church; at   
   once   
   his body rose into the air, and he kissed the image with tender devotion. At   
   holy Mass he was usually lifted in the air and remained there swaying over   
   the   
   altar for hours at a time. For that reason, he usually said Mass in the   
   convent   
   chapel rather than in the church.   
      
   What impression these ecstasies made on witnesses may be deduced from the   
   story   
   of Duke John Frederick of Brunswick. In 1649 he once attended the Mass   
   offered   
   up by Father Joseph. He was so impressed by the ecstasy that he was   
   convinced of   
   the truth of the Catholic faith and two years later made his profession of   
   faith   
   before Father Joseph himself.   
      
   Because these visions were so extraordinary, Father Joseph's virtue was also   
   tested. God Himself permitted Joseph to be severely tempted by the devil.   
   Added   
   to this, he suffered for years from dryness of heart, so that he felt   
   completely   
   forsaken by God. But all these trials could not embitter his heart; he   
   placed it   
   within the wound of our Savior's side and preserved peace of mind. He had no   
   other wish but to do the will of God.   
      
   After he had stood the test of many storms, he was again rewarded with   
   heavenly   
   consolation. Desiring to be with Christ, he died in the convent at Osimo on   
   September 18, 1663. Numerous miracles occurred at his grave, and Pope   
   Clement   
   XIII canonized him in 1753. Because of his miraculous flights through the   
   air,   
   he is now honored as a patron of those who travel by air.   
      
   ON THE WOUND IN THE SIDE OF CHRIST   
   1. Just as the heart of St. Francis was filled with ardent love for his   
   crucified Lord, so his son St. Joseph was attracted to the cross. He soared   
   to   
   it in marvelous flight as though his body possessed the lightness of   
   glorified   
   bodies, and there he rested at the open wound in the side of his Lord, at   
   the   
   Sacred Heart Itself. Christ said: "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will   
   draw   
   all things to Myself" (Jn 12:32). How is it that we are not more attracted   
   to   
   Him, at least in the depths of our heart? We lack the proper interior   
   sentiments. "By two wings," says Thomas a Kempis, "is man lifted up above   
   earthly things, namely by simplicity and purity. Simplicity must be in the   
   intention, purity in the affection." -- Examine yourself. In what are you   
   wanting?   
   2. Consider with what sentiments we should be inspired by the wound in the   
   side   
   of Christ. We should have the sentiments of Christ's own Heart. "Let this   
   mind   
   be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil 2:5). From this Sacred Heart   
   we   
   should above all learn meekness and humility, that marvelous compassion to   
   which   
   our Lord alluded when He said: "Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son   
   of   
   Man, it shall be forgiven him" (Matt 12:32), and which He exercised when He   
   hung   
   upon the cross praying for His executioners and blasphemers. In this Sacred   
   Heart St. Joseph placed all his trials and crosses before they could touch   
   his   
   own heart. Act likewise, place your trials and temptations there, so that   
   the   
   meekness of Christ may encompass you.   
   3. Consider with what spirit we should be imbued after contemplating the   
   wound   
   in the side of Christ. We should be filled with zeal for the cause of Christ   
   and   
   the desire to promote the honor and glory of God and to gain souls for Him.   
   It   
   was this zeal that burned in the heart of our saint; to this end he directed   
   all   
   his prayers and works of penance. How much zeal have we for the cause of   
   God,   
   for the salvation of our own soul and the souls of our fellowmen? How   
   lukewarm,   
   how indifferent we are in these matters! Go frequently to the wound in the   
   side   
   of Christ, and beg Him to draw you to Himself, so that the zeal of His   
   Sacred   
   Heart may be kindled in you.   
      
   PRAYER OF THE CHURCH   
   O God, who didst ordain that all amen be attracted to Thy only begotten Son,   
   who   
   was raised above the earth, mercifully grant that, by the merits and   
   intercession of Thy seraphic confessor Joseph, we may be raised above   
   earthly   
   desired and deserve to be admitted into his company. Who livest and reignest   
   forever and ever. Amen.   
      
   From:   
   http://www.paxetbonum.net/saints/september.html#18   
      
      
   Saint Quote   
      
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